An Ode to Youth, Forever Fleeting

By LARRY ROHTER

Published: August 19, 2012

killing her.Last weekend, ''Independents'' opened at the New York International Fringe Festival with Ms. Keegan's parents, other family members and many of her friends from Yale in attendance. No one spoke of the tragedy from the stage, but then again, there was no need to, because Ms. Keegan's collaborators, all of them contemporaries with no prior experience of losing someone their own age, have been seesawing between grief and resolve since her death.">

IN late May, a week after she graduated from Yale University, 22-year-old Marina Keegan headed to her family's summer cottage on Cape Cod to begin revisions of ''Independents,'' a musical whose book she had written the summer before. The plan was for her to be joined there by the show's director, lyricist and composer, but she never made it; the car in which she was riding crashed, killing her.Last weekend, ''Independents'' opened at the New York International Fringe Festival with Ms. Keegan's parents, other family members and many of her friends from Yale in attendance. No one spoke of the tragedy from the stage, but then again, there was no need to, because Ms. Keegan's collaborators, all of them contemporaries with no prior experience of losing someone their own age, have been seesawing between grief and resolve since her death.

''We all agreed, Marina's parents included, that going ahead was a way of honoring Marina and getting her words and ideas across to more people,'' said Charlie Polinger, the director of ''Independents'' and a Yale classmate of Ms. Keegan's. ''But as the inventor of this world, she would have wanted this to be a show in its own right, not a memorial service, and that's what all of us are trying to do.''

''Independents'' is set in the current day aboard an 18th-century tall ship where a motley crew of people in their 20s have taken refuge from the pressures of beginning their adult lives. They survive economically by smuggling marijuana between Canada and the United States, but when the captain of their vessel disappears, they turn to historical re-enactments of events from the Revolutionary War to make ends meet.

In an essay, ''The Opposite of Loneliness,'' which was published just before her death and received national attention, Ms. Keegan touched on some of those same themes, in particular the pleasure of ''tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest nights.'' She added: ''It's not quite love and it's not quite community; it's just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team.''

That puts ''Independents'' squarely in the tradition of shows that attempt to express the yearnings of an emerging generation. Obvious reference points, mentioned by Ms. Keegan's collaborators, include musicals like ''Hair'' and ''Rent'' or, more recently, ''Spring Awakening,'' a 19th-century German play that was turned into a Tony-winning Broadway musical in 2006.

An earlier play of Ms. Keegan's, ''Utility Monster,'' a meditation on charity and ethics, was given a staged reading by the Firework Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in February. The Fringe, which features 188 works and runs through Aug. 26, selected ''Independents'' for inclusion in April. The musical, which is scheduled to play on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, ''was fun and moving and very current, all of which spoke to us, plus it has a lovely score and wonderful characters,'' said Elena Holy, the festival's artistic director.

She added, ''You can have a debate about whether they are slackers or burnouts aboard that ship, but this is being done by a group of 20-somethings, and it speaks to their generation.''

Bringing any original theatrical work to the stage involves revisions, as scenes or songs are expanded, contracted or even eliminated and characters' roles modified. In the case of ''Independents'' that creates a paradox: even as Ms. Keegan's collaborators strive to honor her intentions, the changes they make in her unexpected absence result in a certain dilution of her original contribution.

''It became clear to me that her parents were going to have to face the loss of their daughter in a new and painful way, a very bizarre dramaturgical way,'' said Deborah Margolin, who was Ms. Keegan's playwriting professor at Yale and a mentor. ''Because she is not alive to complete the work, her words are not the only words in the work, and it is natural to be wondering if she would approve of this line or sentiment or idea.''

Ms. Keegan's parents said they understood that need, adding that they took solace in the maritime setting of the musical and its evocation of the period of the American Revolution, which came directly out of Ms. Keegan's own upbringing and interests. Her father, Kevin, has taught high-school and middle-school American history, and the family's longstanding ties to Cape Cod gave her access to a rich stock of nautical lore and legends.

''It's not just a coincidence that this play is set on a Revolutionary War tall ship,'' Mr. Keegan said. ''Marina was brought up around ships and sailing, has even been a sailing instructor.'' He added, ''She researched that history very carefully for this play.''

Ms. Keegan's taste is also reflected in the folk-pop score, with her collaborators citing her fondness for artists like Sufjan Stevens, Mumford & Sons, Fleet Foxes and Laura Marling. ''Form and function are connected'' in a mix of modern concerns and traditional sounds, explained Mark Sonnenblick, the lyricist.

It is always tempting to embellish the promise of those who die young, but even while she was alive, Ms. Keegan drew praise as a precocious talent. ''She would be the first person to be horrified by what she considered facile sentimentality, but I have to say that Marina combined excellence and suppleness of language with passionate commitment to social justice and the investigation of humanity, and therefore had enormous potential as a writer,'' Ms. Margolin said.

Yet there is no guarantee that she was going to pursue a career as a playwright. She also showed promise as an essayist, won praise for her poetry and showed talent as a fiction writer: she was to have spent this summer working at The New Yorker, and NPR broadcast one of her stories on ''Selected Shorts'' last year.

''I knew my daughter was talented,'' Mr. Keegan said. ''Now the world knows because of a tragedy.''

PHOTOS: Left, Marina Keegan, and a scene from ''Independents,'' a musical that Ms. Keegan was working on before her death in May. The show is being performed at the New York International Fringe Festival. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY LUKE VARGAS; BRIAN HARKIN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)

killing her.Last weekend, ''Independents'' opened at the New York International Fringe Festival with Ms. Keegan's parents, other family members and many of her friends from Yale in attendance. No one spoke of the tragedy from the stage, but then again, there was no need to, because Ms. Keegan's collaborators, all of them contemporaries with no prior experience of losing someone their own age, have been seesawing between grief and resolve since her death.">